Reuters Pulls 'Backdoor Taxes' Story

[meegbear]

Source: talkingpointsmemo.com / Reuters

The news service Reuters withdrew a story last night titled "Backdoor taxes to hit middle class" after the White House reached out and pointed out "errors of fact."

The story, which claimed the White House's deficit reduction plan relies on raising taxes against the middle class by allowing tax cuts to expire, was withdrawn at about 8 p.m. Monday, according to Yahoo timestamps. The original story ran at 4 p.m. The withdrawal promises a replacement story later this week.

"The story went out, and it shouldn't have gone out," said Courtney Dolan, a spokeswoman for Reuters. "It had significant errors of fact." She would not elaborate on the specific errors, but said Reuters will "address those specific points that were incorrect."

"The White House did contact us and point out errors of fact," she added. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/reuters-pulls-backdoor-taxes-story.php?ref=fpa

---

The story was running at the top of the Drudge Report's front page this morning (here's the archived page) until White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton tweeted about the withdrawal:

FYI - Reuters has withdrawn the story at the top of the Drudge Report. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/cykiPJ

Minutes later, Drudge added a link to the withdrawal.

[babylonsister]

1. I'm glad the WH is finally standing up for themselves and slapping

down the bogus stories floating around.

Guess I need to add Reuters to the list of 'suspect' news sources, though they had the grace to retract this one.

[gateley]

3. Ditto -- glad the WH is on top of it. And I'm kind of saddened about Reuters -

always thought them 'fair and balanced'. :7

It could be an error, and they DID retract it quickly, but you still have to wonder.

[MindandSoul]

14. Yes, the only way to stop the detrimental effects of lies is to correct the lies IMMEDIATELY!

[sharp_stick]

2. Terri Cullen

former employee at the Wall Street Journal hasn't had a very good start with her stint at Reuters. Probably thought she could simply continue with the WSJ tactic of lie your ass off and pretend you're a serious journalist.

Hopefully Reuters has figured out what kind of shill she was and is.

[louis-t]

13. Limbaugh already has commented on it, according to

a guy in my office. Just told me about it 10 minutes ago. "Obama gunna raise yer taxes."

[tsstranger]

15. Limbaugh

The Vulgar Junkie PigBoy is running with the story, telling it as fact to his idiot followers, because, to them, anything Rush says is Gospel.

[Tsar_Bomba]

19. I heard it too.

The drugster couldn't wait to use it for propaganda. I'm sure this will be a new talking point for the right. Face it the whole media is right wing slanted with agents planted in key positions for exactly this purpose. Create confusion by reporting a lie then backing away, but damage done people will believe the original story. No wonder nothing gets done.

[ShockediSay]

23. This is a Fascist Funded Propaganda War we are losing, like

letting stories about:

death panels;

the government bureaucrat b/n you & your doctor
{but not the insurance man who gets a bonus for
w/drawing your coverage}

the government "takeover" of health care

fly

[high density]

22. He'll say Obama's gunna raise yer taxes no matter what

The right wing will say an increase in capital gains and dividends tax is an increase on the middle class. Of course, for most middle class Americans, income from capital gains and dividends in taxable accounts are likely to be zero or an insignificant amount.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

25. An increase on capital gains will come out of jobs

To the extent anyone notices, an increase in capital gains will undercut job growth in some sectors of the economy (like tech) where many of the jobs are directly funded by capital gains. This is the primary reason even most European countries have very low capital gains taxes -- better to tax the income on those jobs.

The problem with dividends is different. Since they are effectively double-taxed, if personal dividend taxes are like income companies stop issuing them. Not a huge issue but it will create a run-up in some stock market prices and make it more difficult to build a decent fixed-income portfolio.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. The WH certainly needs a Watchdog to stop lies being put out

they need to scrutinize fact vs fiction in the media. They need a fast reponse team.

[JDPriestly]

21. We should start an e-mail campaign to the White House and

ask them to have a fact v. fiction website.

They should scrutinize all Republican talking points, all Fox News broadcasts. They should carefully limit objections to untruths and also carefully point out issues on which there is political disagreement and present the disagreements in an objective way. The President needs to make sure that he is more trusted than Fox News. He is far more trustworthy. It's just a matter of his speaking clearly and concisely and pointing to the truth. This is what President Obama does best. This is his strength. I want to see him and his administration speak forthrightly and loudly -- no cut tricks -- even more often.

I like the direction that Obama appears to be going this year.

[FBaggins]

5. What kinds of errors? n/t

[wisteria]

6. The title is still listed as a top story on Yahoo though.

Uh, I hate to be a tinfoil hat therorist, but this sounds like a corportate push to help the Republicans in the elections later this year. Gee, the title implies Dem's are going to tax the middle class imagine that. Both the story and the title should now be withdrawn and a huge very public apology should be issued by Ruters. The title is what everyone is reading.

[OldMcCarthyGuy]

10. Evil Republican-Corporations

I agree completely. The Republican/corporate beasts must be made to grovel before us whenever they get their facts wrong. We however must insure that our facts are always correct, and if they are not, deny, obfuscate, and in any other way possible cover it up.

[wisteria]

16. Democrats don't misprepresent facts, and manipulate the media-that is Repub territory.

Sorry, freeper, this story was wrong and uncall for and it was posted to make Democrats look bad. Case in point- front page Drudge Report and I would bet money that Fox was playing it too. The entire story-including the title should have been removed. Why leave the title?

[The Doctor.]

27. Funny. I'll try to explain... s-l-o-w-l-y...

The two 'sides' here are the wealthy elite/corporate and the people... not 'liberals' and 'conservatives'.

The corporations have long been striving to gain ever greater control... and they're getting it. They exist to turn a profit for their shareholders every quarter. They do not care about you or I as anything more than consumers and/or cheap labor.

Everything you've been told to believe is to the benefit of corporations, not the people.

They have you convinced that 'unions are bad' because they drive up prices, yet busting unions and dropping pay doesn't help the purchasing power of the people... just corporate profits.

They have you convinced that we need to nothing about the climate because it's either 'not happening' or 'not our fault'. Action might cost them a few quarter's profits in the short run, so they're wrecking the future for all of us.

They have convinced you that they should have the right to 'voice' their opinion in politics... thereby giving them control of the government.

These examples can be proven beyond a doubt, but they've convinced you not to listen.

It's not your fault we're headed off the cliff, but you people have been keeping us from putting the brakes on for too long. We're in deep shit, but I'm sure they'll tell you to blame the Empiricists, Liberals, and Progressives anyway... even though we've been warning you for years where things were headed.

[marshall]

24. Now they're saying there will be no followup as first promised

ADVISORY: Backdoor taxes story
Tue Feb 2, 2010 1:35pm ESTThe Feb 1 story headlined "Backdoor taxes to hit middle class" is wrong and has been withdrawn. The story said lower-income families will pay more under tax provisions scheduled to expire Dec 31. The Obama administration's budget calls for the extension of those tax provisions for households earning less than $250,000. There will be no substitute story.

_________________________

So instead of issuing an actual retraction with real information, they're just going to back off and say "Never mind"? They need to own up to their own errors, explain why they reported what they did, tell what consequences happened in their organization, and lay out the REAL facts. That is the way real reporters deal with inaccuracies that they foisted on the gossiping public.

[Historic NY]

7. you can still find the Reuters story on Yahoo....

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100201/us/usreport_us_budget_backdoortaxes

[wisteria]

18. It is obvious - this story was let out on purpose. Once the cat is out of the bag,

wrong or right, this is what gets carried forward. We should double our efforts to refute this, because it will be reported by Fox, Limbaugh and Hannity-all of whom don't give a damn about truth in media.

[groundloop]

8. Even though Reuters has withdrawn the story it'll be making the rounds in email lists for months

[timeforpeace]

9. Sadly this will just bring much more attention to it.

[tabasco]

26. Yeah, I bet you're real sad.

Actually, it exposes Reuters as a bunch of fucking amateurs that couldn't edit the Hootersville Gazette.

[Beavker]

11. New Reuters article

Back door Taxes to Hit Middle Class

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) Not. The President's budget will not tax the middle class, but we figured none of you mindless Teabagging Right Wing Morons would even read the article if you can read, so we're going to keep the title. If Fox and CNBC can fabricate and manipulate the facts to favor their right wing agenda to bolster viewership, then we figure we can too.

[xocet]

12. Story [strike]pulled[/strike] advised against by Yahoo Canada....

Source: (Yahoo Canada)

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.
In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.
While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

--SNIP--

And on it goes....

I suppose that Reuters only partially pulled it or that Yahoo Canada is did not get the memorandum.

NOW, Yahoo Canada has pulled advised against the story.

[MARALE]

17. Wow, that reads like an opinion piece

or a Fox article, not a real journalistic article. I can see where people are confused on the facts if this is the crap that people think is news.

[JDPriestly]

20. I agree. Good to see the President fighting back against the Frank Luntz

inspired hype and lies. This may not be directly attributable to Luntz, but it is the kind of nonsense he advises Republicans to spew.

[joeglow3]

28. So, what is the error?

I am assuming the White House (and COngress) intend to introduce a bill to extend the "tax cuts" that the middle and lower classes got, thereby allowing only the top cuts to expire?